Guide:Optimizing performance
Fortresscraft Evolved can easily tax a PC to its limit. This page will cover ways to squeeze the maximum performance from your CPU/GPU/HD setup. Game dynamics FCE targets a game 'tick' every 200ms. If your system is being overloaded, it will slow down the tick to compensate. Large late-stage games can have several thousand machines, along with hundreds of entities such as wasps, that need to be processed during those 200ms. The world is broken up into 3D 'segments'. Segments near the CPH are always loaded. Segments further away are loaded if the player visits them, or if they are directly or indirectly connected to the CPH (via conveyors, lifts, LPTs, etc). If the player leaves a segment and it has no active machines, it can be saved off to the disk. Because of these rules, 'isolated' machines might not update until after you visit them - before your visit FCE had no idea there were active machines in the segment. Always try to connect a distant ore extractor, etc back to the CPH, even with basic LPTs, to make sure it is always loaded. Dynamic Draw Distance (enabled by default) will adjust your draw distance downwards to meet the frame rate target. The Draw Distance set in the menu is the maximum draw distance allowed. Lowering your graphics options will help to increase the draw distance. Understanding your performance FCE offers several tools to understand how well it is running on your setup. */debug in the chat window. F5 will save a log of this to output_log.txt *Left ALT-J brings up a status window with performance indicators *Shift will replace your depth and suit power with how well the game is keeping up with loading/unloading segments. *The top right indicator has 3 bars above the temperature gauge that represent shadows (blue), FPS (red), and draw distance (green). PC System Suggestions FCE is a heavily multithreaded game. CPUs with additional cores or hyperthreading will help with basic performance. FCE is a 3D game, but not necessarily intense. A decent mid-range GPU should be more than sufficient. Don't use "Fabulous" graphics - it's way overkill. Use a setting or two lower. Because of the constant paging of segments in and out, disk drive performance is key for FCE. SSDs are definitely preferred. A great place for PC builds is Tech Report. Base Building Suggestions When building your base, there are several recommendations to follow to optimize performance. Try to spread out your machines. LPTs have a range of 64 blocks. Place lifts near ore veins underground and bring them to the surface. If you have the extra power, use matter movers instead of conveyor belts. Split processing off at different levels underground. Above -25m there are no smelting or power generation penalties. Keep processing areas outside of visible range of each other (with an opaque floor). Limit usage of windows. The CPU can still do the processing for the machines off-screen, but doesn't need to provide the 3D information to the GPU. Be sure to have a link back to the CPH, see above on segments. Certain blocks/configurations will cause more CPU usage. Try to hide large mass storage areas from view. Do not use large connected banks of PSBs - upgrade them instead or use LPTs to transfer power. Hoppers set to Vacuum mode are also performance hogs. Make sure to utilize FALCOR MK1s to pick up loot. Large quantities of loot lying on the ground cause performance problems. Pristine organic items will despawn after several hours, but machines will never despawn. Once the game start despawning items and you have FALCORs, you will receive requests to "Improve your FALCOR network!" If you don't need the items, feed them into a macerator loop to get rid of them. Be careful leaving the loop constantly on - if you're slow picking up a dropped machine a FALCOR beacon could pick it up. The Laser Resin Ablator and Laser Resin Liquifier use a recursive algorithm to detect which block to act upon. Place them as close as possible to your resin and move them to keep them close to prevent wasted CPU time searching for the nearest resin block. Category:Guides